The Sinpo-dong Community Security Council (Private Chairperson Kim Hyun-gi) in Jemulpo-gu District, Incheon, delivered homemade holiday food to 60 households of seniors living alone ahead of Chuseok. The council held a 'Holiday Food Sharing' event on Sept. 9 for the 60 households.
 [The Korean Today] Sinpo-dong Community Security Council's holiday food sharing © Reporter Kim Mi-hee |
The food-sharing initiative is a public-private partnership project funded through a grant secured after the council was selected for the Korea Racing Authority Jemulpo Branch's public contest program. It was planned to provide practical help to vulnerable residents in the area ahead of the holiday while fostering a community spirit of neighbors sharing warmth with one another.
What set the event apart was that the council members handled the entire food preparation process themselves. Members personally prepared the ingredients, cooked the marinated ribs (yangnyeom galbi) and packaged them, then visited each recipient household one by one to deliver the food. Rather than simply dropping off the meals, the members also took time to check on the seniors' well-being and look into their living conditions ahead of the holiday. As holidays are a period when loneliness deepens for seniors living alone, such visits serve as welfare check-ins beyond mere food support.
Private Chairperson Kim Hyun-gi said, "Our members pooled their sincere efforts to prepare marinated ribs for the holiday," adding, "We will continue to do our best to build a warm local community together with residents."
Kim Seon-geum, head of Sinpo-dong, said, "I am grateful to the council members who actively took part in the sharing," adding, "We will continue to actively identify welfare blind spots and provide tailored welfare services that residents can feel in their daily lives."
The food sharing is one of five projects the Sinpo-dong Community Security Council is carrying out from August through November with support from the Korea Racing Authority Jemulpo Branch's public contest program. During this period, the council will successively implement ▲welfare check-ins on seniors living alone to prevent lonely deaths ▲side dish support in partnership with the local community ▲replacement of home appliances for households in housing welfare blind spots ▲traditional market gift certificate support for vulnerable groups ▲a Sinpo-dong senior citizens' banquet.
Spanning lonely-death prevention, side dish, appliance and gift certificate support, and the senior banquet, the projects are structured not as a one-off holiday event but as a continuous effort to look after the lives of seniors living alone and vulnerable groups throughout the second half of the year. The initiative is regarded as a case in which private contest funding combined with the human resources of a neighborhood-level council helps narrow welfare blind spots.
[ Reporter Kim Mi-hee: incheonsouth@thekoreantoday.com ]
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